It's almost eight. She's out by the forest, and now she's getting impatient. Whatever happens, she needs to be home before nine. A rule her father made. She's allowed to die, but not to break this rule. So, she has made herself a rule too: before eight, finish everything she has to finish, and kill everyone she has to kill. But she hasn't finished her job today. The enemy's had more forces hidden than the Saluzzos expected, and things are getting bogged down. Her guys have the ride home ready. She knows her father doesn't give a shit about her results, just that she's punctual. So she chooses to get on. But the enemy choose this moment to loose a pack of trained tuskbeasts, a handful of which breach the vicinity, and charge straight aboard the wheels, aimed straight for her throat. They can't get near her, of course; she dodges easily, and decapitates them in the same motion. Still, something tells her they slashed <i>something</i> on her. She looks down. It was the pocket watch. They scratched the glass face and left a real deep claw mark. She can't tell the time through it. A hint of nerves immediately bolts through her. But right after that, a surprising sense of relief. The tension she felt a moment ago vanishes into thin air. 'Lemme out,' she suddenly says. Her goons push back as hard as they can, but she gets out anyway, and paces one step at a time towards the forest. Tick tock, tick tock, it's eight o'clock. She paces into its depths, vanishing without a trace. Today, it'll take her until the dead of night before she's killed them all, and only at the crack of dawn will she finally traipse back through the Saluzzos' door. Today, Alberto will fly off his goddamn handle. Today, Lappland will smile a big happy smile. ...... 'There's a story that goes like... A girl gets a spell cast on her that turns her beautiful, but then she'll turn back right at the stroke of midnight.' Idly fiddling with her watch, she throws out a sudden remark. 'Zaaro, you scared the magic'll run out? Scared you'll just die like a nameless tuskbeast out in the barrens where nobody'll ever know?' 'What a fool's question. You disrespect the Signore dei Lupi's very nature.' 'You know, most humans—the ones you see as toys—they think the same way. And in my eyes, you're all the same. 'You think the spell cast on you will last forever and forever, and then there comes a day, a moment the magic wears off, and you howl like a mutt how it wasn't meant to be this way.' 'What? And you think you're an exception?' 'No, Zaaro. I think that's when you get to see the real me.' She places the watch to her ear, shuts her eyes, and oh-so-softly taps at its shell in time with the faint second hand. 'Tick-tock, tick-tock, it's eight o'clock.'